Abstract:
Symmetry breaking together with the strong spin-orbit interaction give rise to many exciting opportunities to the condensed matter physics community. Topologically protected magnetic skyrmions are one of the representative examples. In this talk, I will first present our recent progress in electric creation and manipulation of magnetic skyrmion at room temperature in heterostructures with an interfacial broken inversion symmetry. This observation is triggered by the inhomogeneous current induced spin-orbit torque in a Ta/CoFeB/TaOx trilayer. Secondly, I will demonstrate experimentally a topology driven dynamics of magnetic skyrmion – the skyrmion Hall effect – that is the accumulation of skyrmions at one side of the device. Thirdly, strategy towards sub-50 nanometer skyrmions at room temperature in the absence of magnetic field will be discussed. In the end, some open questions and future focus points will be addressed.